Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Just wondering if there would be any benefits in swapping out some of the transistors in the Crown Jewel for other types? I've gotten into the habit of soldering socket pins for the 3-leg transistors in fuzz pedals to easily experiment with other kinds, but wasn't sure if there would be any real benefit to do so in the Crown Jewel. If so, which transistors would provide the most noticeable tonal changes by being replaced, the BS170's, the 2N3904's, or the 78L05?

The BS170 are for the switch mute, so no. You don't want to play with those.

The 78L05 is a 5 volt regulator, not a transistor. It supplies the voltage to the relays and the MCU, so you don't want to play with those.

The Q1 and Q2 2N3904 are what actually turn the relays on and off, so if they are doing their job, you don't want to play with those either.

None of the transistors in the Crown Jewel are providing gain, so changing them out won't really make a lot of difference. You can replace the Q5 and Q6 2N3904 if you want. They are typical NPN BJTs with the standard EBC pinout. Q5 is an input buffer, so it won't make a significant difference. You could replace it with a 2SK246 JFET and replace R12 with a higher value resistor to give it a high impedance JFET input similar to the BOSS FA-1. Q6 is part of the active EQ. If the transistor is doing its job, it shouldn't really be imparting any sort of tone to the circuit, so changing that won't make any real difference.

Thanks for the response in the edit. I kept checking for replies without actually opening the thread and feel dumb for having taken a few days to see the feedback lol

Appreciate the information. How about any of the boost modules? Would there be any benefit to swapping transistors in any of them? I'll likely be building most if not all of the actual boost/clipping modules at some point or another, so I want to get sockets in them if it looks like experimenting with transistors would be viable.

Sorry. That was my bad. I must have clicked the edit button instead of the reply button.

Yeah...I guess you could get an appreciable difference on the boosts that use BJTs, such as the LPB, Electra, and Pre-Gain modules. Ands obviously the Fuzz Module. You could use higher gain transistors such as the 2N5089 or BC109C to get a bit more gain out of them. I would not play around with the other modules. The rest of them are using FET or MOSFET and you really don't want to stray too far off from the intended specs.

The Octave up module is based on the Green Ringer. People generally opt for low gain transistors with that circuit, as most people try to get less clipping.

And then the Treble boost module is another good one to experiment with if you can get some good Ge transistors.

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